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EP. REVIEW: Psycho-Pass 2

Lack of objectivity is the basic premise by which ANN should stop giving reviews writership to fangirls. This review was clearly worse than the series was.

Lack of objectivity is the basic premise by which ANN should stop giving reviews writership to fangirls. This review was clearly worse than the series was.

Lack of objectivity is the basic premise by which ANN should stop giving reviews writership to fangirls. This review was clearly worse than the series was.

In the past (and here's where you're right) a psycho-pass was an individual judgment. We were judged based on what we did or would do as specific persons. We alone are responsible for what actions we have performed, are performing, or will perform--at least that's the philosophy behind the individual psycho-pass. We can only be judged because we are responsible. If we're being coerced, judgment wouldn't make sense, right? Or at least be morally acceptable, right? The idea isn't that they are morally responsible for who they are, of course. That's why even people in highly emotional states can be judged. Rather, the responsibility rests on some idea of conversability (sp?): we can be judged for our actions if we can recognize our actions as wrong, or can at least discuss the moral values of our actions. (It goes far deeper than this, but that's a rough idea.) So, people in high emotional states aren't killed, but they are judged by Sibyl; people who go out of their way to plan actions in advance and carry them out are judged more severely, and people who deliberate, act, and are conversible are judged even more severely (enforcers tend to fit this bill). Those who generally are NOT conversible (Makishima from S1) tend to be "criminally asymptomatic". They don't feel any remorse or hesitation in committing the crimes, and so they are brought in to make Sibyl itself more conversible about those crimes (so it can judge them appropriately). (Togane recognizes everything he does is a horrible crime, but desires to be evil; he is technically conversible, and this is reflected in his color.)

Kamui (and Sibyl itself), however, present very different problems to this system. See, Kamui isn't an individual responsible for his actions (and neither is Sibyl--let's bundle them together for now). His actions are those of a collective entity. Any action Kamui performs is deliberated on and acted on as 180 people. His conversability is reliant on accounting for all 180 individuals that make up Kamui being included in the dialogue. An individual psycho-pass cannot account for this. A collective psycho-pass, however, can. It can say that each member is responsible for the group; that the group's actions are sufficient to judge the member's. We can judge Kamui under a collective psycho-pass, because we are now judging each individual not as an individual, but as a member of the collective. So, that's why every individual can have a psycho-pass reading of 0 and still be judged. The judgment is no longer based on the level of your psycho-pass, but the psycho-pass of the collective to which you belong.

The best example of this I can think of is how we judge nations, especially in times of war. See, we don't think that any individual American is responsible for the torture report, for example; however, America as a nation is certainly responsible for torture (we carried it out, didn't we?), and that's why we are disavowing this as part of who we are. For if who we are is a nation that tortures, we can all be fairly judged as members of this nation--even if we don't like torture ourselves, and disavow it avidly.

As another example, the Iran sanctions for its (alleged) nuclear program are a judgment of Iran as a whole. We don't think that the average Iranian is responsible; we might think his 'psycho-pass" is clear--is 0. But that's not what's important under this collective judgment. What matters is that Iran is a collective entity: it includes not just Khamenei and the government, but the citizens, too. And when it acts, there is no way to punish the government without punishing also the citizens. That is, if we want to adequately judge nations, we cannot just judge the individuals in charge; we need to judge *everybody*, even if it's not fair to the less influential citizens (who have no actual participation in the policies we're judging the nation for).

Going back to Psycho-Pass, why this now matters (and why it's now a large problem), is that we're now treating collectives like individuals. So, Kamui looks like a person, but he isn't (exactly) one person. He is a group acting as one. Because of this, we're treating the members of collectives as parts of a person. That is, because we're now treating collectives as persons, we can cast judgment on people who are not related to the actual crimes. What's really problematic, then, is that not only can Sibyl be judged, but the city itself can be judged for Sibyl's actions. It doesn't matter if you agree with Sibyl, if you are part of this larger collective. Furthermore (and more problematically for Sibyl), the people can now judge Sibyl. They can determine whether this perfect system is right or wrong; whether to trust its judgment. Sibyl is no longer the decider of all things; the power is being removed from Sibyl and being entrusted back to the people. Sibyl was supposed to reign sovereign. Its word was to be unquestionable. Now, however, Sibyl is no loner sovereign; it is no longer above the judgment of society.

One can even say that Kamui was a contrived villain that was created for the sole purpose of forcing the Sybil System to update itself.

I think the season was entirely for the sake of introducing this concept for the movie

Lack of objectivity is the basic premise by which ANN should stop giving reviews writership to fangirls. This review was clearly worse than the series was.

heh heh heh
spoiler[NOPE,shambala barely has single scans http://yomogi.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/asaloon/1418547927/851-951
season2 has absolutely no contribution to the movie, Sugo and Sho are barely in it, it's just Akane's bizarre adventures in shambala floats
she barely interacts with Kogami
Gino (once he pops in long with div1 during the climax) has a much better interaction it seems]